Amnesia freezes on main menu, crashes.

[Guest]

Duplicate thread because I'm a retard who can't input a title properly. Copy Pasta from first thread, with added details of actual problem*;

- - - - - - - -

So neither Amneisa TDD nor the Penumbra series working here (A Machine For Pigs is working however).
They used to work flawlessly but have just 'all of a sudden' given up. Probably after an automatic Windows update, but to be completely honest I don't know the cause exactly.

*I load it up with any settings at all, go through the opening screens (publisher et al) and then it gets to the profile screen and freezes the second I try to move the mouse or click something etc.
Graphic settings make no difference, it always does this.
Never used to have this problem, all games worked flawlessly on this machine in the past (machine is a Medion box bought from the local Hofer\Aldi supermarket in September 2013).

Anyway. Windows 8 64 bit, AMD Radeon HD 7560D with the latest drivers. Amnesia and Penumbra are also the latest updated versions.

Here's the log... -------------------

Version 1.20 - s2F46AFCA-539
-------- THE HPL ENGINE LOG ------------
Engine build ID 20101021192547

Creating Engine Modules
--------------------------------------------------------
Creating graphics module
Creating system module
Creating resource module
Creating input module
Creating sound module
Creating physics module
Creating ai module
Creating gui module
Creating generate module
Creating haptic module
Creating scene module
--------------------------------------------------------

Initializing Resources Module
--------------------------------------------------------
Creating loader handlers
Creating resource managers
Adding loaders to handlers
--------------------------------------------------------

Initializing Graphics Module
--------------------------------------------------------
Init lowlevel graphics: 1920x1080 bpp:32 fs:1 ms:0 gpufmt:2 cap:'Amnesia - The Dark Descent - Loading...' posSad-1x-1)
Setting video mode: 1920 x 1080 - 32 bpp
Init Glew...OK
Setting up OpenGL
Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 7560D
Version: 4.4.12874 Compatibility Profile Context 14.100.0.0
Max texture image units: 18
Max texture coord units: 16
Max user clip planes: 8
Two sided stencil: 1
Vertex Buffer Object: 1
Anisotropic filtering: 1
Max Anisotropic degree: 16
Multisampling: 1
Texture compression: 1
Texture compression S3TC: 1
Auto generate MipMaps: 1
Render to texture: 1
Max draw buffers: 8
Max color render targets: 8
Packed depth-stencil: 1
Texture float: 1
GLSL Version: 4.30
ShaderModel 2: 1
ShaderModel 3: 1
ShaderModel 4: 1
OGL ATIFragmentShader: 1
Setting up G-Bugger: type: 0 texturenum: 3
Adding engine materials
Initializing DevIL
Vendor String: Abysmal Software
Version String: Developer's Image Library (DevIL) 1.6.8pre Aug 12 2006
Version Number: 168
Adding engine post effects
--------------------------------------------------------

Initializing Sound Module
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing OpenAL
Available OpenAL devices:
0. Generic Software on 1 - CVTE TV (AMD High Definition Audio Device)(OpenAL default)
1. Generic Software on Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Trying to open device 'Generic Software on 1 - CVTE TV (AMD High Definition Audio Device)'... Success!
Number of mono sources: 32
Streaming setup: 4 Buffers x 262144 bytes each
--------------------------------------------------------

Initializing Game Module
--------------------------------------------------------
Adding engine updates
Initializing script functions
--------------------------------------------------------

User Initialization
--------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------

Game Running
--------------------------------------------------------
-------- Loading map 'menu_bg.map' ---------
Cache Loading: 1084 ms
Entities: 221 ms
Compilation: 3 ms
Total: 1322 ms
Meshes created: 25
Bodies created: 5
-------- Loading complete ---------

....-----------------------------------------------------

Any ideas?

[plutomaniac]

If the game is from steam, try a file integrity check first. Also, check the known programs that can cause problems list. Both things can be found at the troubleshooting guide.

[Guest]

Thanks for replying Pluto.

It's an original download directly from the Frictional site, unlocked with the serial as usual (same goes for the Penumbra series) so nothing to do with Steam or GOG or anything.

Tried it with background services stripped right down but still does the same thing.

As mentioned, it used to work perfectly. No idea what went wrong.

[plutomaniac]

Try going to Documents and rename the folder Amnesia to Amnesia_OLD. Maybe there is a corrupted .cfg file or so. What updates were installed recently? Maybe Windows Update "updated" the graphics card drivers with stock microsoft ones corrupting them in the process?

[Guest]

Try going to Documents and rename the folder Amnesia to Amnesia_OLD.

Ah, then reinstall Amnesia from a freshly downloaded installation file?

To be honest, I have no idea what updates Windows did. I just leave it alone and let it update itself as-and-when.
Earlier today I downloaded and installed the latest AMD drivers for this card but it still didn't help. The previous drivers weren't stock MS ones either - they were AMD but just older, from Sept 2013 or something.

[plutomaniac]

no, just rename that folder at Documents. Then try to run the game. We'll make it reset it's settings etc and see if that works.

[Guest]

Thanks for replying again. I tried that, got as far as the gamma-setting screen, and when I went to move the mouse it froze again. Weird, as if moving the mouse causes some sort of interrupt.

Would it be worth dual-booting with a generic Linux distro (such as Mint) and trying Amnesia on there? Surely Linux uses it's own video drivers for AMD cards...

[plutomaniac]

It's strange that it happens when moving the mouse and only then. Can you try another mouse? Otherwise, I will have to stick to some sort of software interference/incompatibility. Since you got the game from FG's store you have access to the Linux and Mac OS X versions as well so if you want to and can, sure, give it a try. My best guess for Windows would be software interference as I said.